Immigration Minister Damian Green has announced a series of measures to tackle the "unacceptably long" queues faced by passengers travelling into Heathrow on non-EU passports.
He told ITV News Senior Political Correspondent Chris Ship that changes to the current system will be made immediately.
Immigration Minister Damian Green told the BBC that the Government is aware that non-EU passport holders spend too long queuing at Heathrow and that they are looking at short term fixes, such as hiring more staff in time for the Olympics, as well as long term solutions.
He said he met with the British Air Transport Association earlier today and they discussed how the Government can work with the airline industry to decrease queue times whilst maintaining robust borders.
Immigration Minister Damian Green has defended the UK Border Force tonight over their queue times by saying that the checks they make are crucial to keep the UK border secure.
He also said that British Airways released the figures that he quoted to parliament: that the average queue for passengers was an hour and a half during April, not almost three hours.
John Dickie, from business lobby group London First, says the length of time non-EU passport holders have to wait to get into the country is "damaging to business" and "bad for the whole of the UK economy."
Simon Buck, the Chief Executive of the British Air Transport Association (Bata) says the government now recognise that the situation in Heathrow needs both short term and long term solutions, and that both of these require more resources.
He spoke to ITV News Senior Political Correspondent Chris Ship after he met the Home Secretary Theresa May and Immigration Minister Damian Green:
The British Air Transport Association today met the Home Secretary and the Immigration Minister to discuss the passport queue chaos.
They say they are reassured that the government has committed to short & long term solutions.
The UK Border Force failed to meet their own immigration-queue targets at Heathrow almost every day last month.
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Passengers travelling into the UK through Heathrow last month were forced to queue at passport control for almost three hours.
Figures released by airport operator BAA showed that on April 30 there were passport queues of up to three hours at Heathrow's Terminal 4, twice as long as the figure Immigration Minister Damian Green suggested in the House of Commons.
On April 10 passengers in Terminal 5 faced queues of an hour, and on April 17 non-EU passport holders faced queues of two hours and thirty-five minutes.
Andrew Tingley, an immigration lawyer at Kingsley Napley, said it was "beyond farcical" that new rules requiring foreign nationals from outside the EU to have a biometric residents permit had left the IT system unable to cope.
He said:
The system that was introduced was not fit for purpose. It was close to collapse a few weeks ago. It has now collapsed. It's an absolute mess.
Mr Tingley also warned of the impact on the UK's economy.
You have senior global managers and directors of companies saying, 'enough is enough'. Employers are saying they can't access a reasonable immigration system and they're considering moving abroad.
They've come to the point now where they're seriously considering not investing or working in the UK because they can't access any reasonably competent system.
Corneel Koster, Virgin Atlantic Director of Operations, Safety and Security, said:
We have had a positive and constructive meeting with the Home Secretary and Immigration Minister.
They agree that the passenger experience needs to be improved and have welcomed our offer to work together to achieve this whilst at the same time maintaining the security of the UK Border.
